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Music on the Road

Melissa Etheridge bares her 'Skin'

By Joanne Suh
CNN Entertainment Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- It's out with the old skin and in with the new for Melissa Etheridge these days. After navigating through some turbulent times in her personal life, the 40-year-old singer-songwriter is enjoying happier moments: a recent induction into Hollywood's famous Rockwalk, a Grammy nomination and new love.

As one of rock music's leading ladies, Etheridge's life has played out on a very public stage. Less than two years ago, Etheridge and her long-term partner, filmmaker Julie Cypher, made headlines when they ended their high-profile relationship of 12 years. This followed earlier headlines that same year that the father of their two children (born to Cypher) was friend and elder rocker David Crosby.

Etheridge deals with the painful, emotional breakup in her latest album, "Skin," which was released last summer. The first single, "I Want to Be in Love" is nominated for a Grammy award. It is her 11th nomination since her debut album came out in 1988.

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Watch Melissa Etheridge's 'I Want To Be In Love' video (February 8) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Etheridge, who has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide, is currently on tour in Europe, but CNN caught up with her in Los Angeles last month for her induction into Hollywood's Rockwalk.

CNN: You're one of the few women to be inducted into the Rockwalk. What was that like?

MELISSA ETHERIDGE: To be alongside in the sidewalk with Bonnie Raitt -- incredible. And then to realize É that Bonnie and I are the only two living women that are in the Rockwalk.

Women have always been in rock and roll. ... Certainly our numbers have not been so great but definitely have been a presence all through the history of rock and roll.

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CNN: This album, "Skin," for which you won a Grammy nomination this year, was a really important album for you, a really personal album. When you sat down to write those songs, you were going through some pretty emotional times. Now that you've had a couple months to kind of be beyond that, how do you feel about the album?

ETHERIDGE: Rock and roll, and (the) music that I write, has always served the same purpose for me, which was to exorcise or use the music cathartically to express my feelings and emotions and fears and pain and hopes. It becomes a sort of therapy for me.

This album, "Skin," was so much that, not only just to myself, but I think it was the first time the world really knew exactly what was going on behind the songs. I wrote them because I had to, because I wanted to, because I felt it. I decided to record it because that's what I do -- that's my work and I love to do that. So I put it out, and I have moved on. That piece of work will stay right there and I will always remember.

But I'm not in that place anymore, thank goodness. And the album has been very healing for me. If you listen to the album from the first song to the last, there is a healing even within itself within the album.

CNN: Your Grammy nomination is for "I Want to Be in Love" and I'm sure there were times when you thought, hmmm, maybe you don't want to be in love (Etheridge laughs). But now you're on the other side of that and that must feel good.

ETHERIDGE: Yes. I don't think there's ever been a time where I didn't want to be in love. I love -- love. I love being in love.

I was in a relationship that didn't fit. I was pursuing that love and it wasn't there. Now being in a relationship that it is there, honey, I am all for it. I am here to shout from the mountaintops to say that I believe in love as a dreamer and a musician and I believe in love when it's right. And I do want to be in love. And be careful what you ask for cause you might get it. (laugh)

CNN: During the last couple months of the year, you went out and toured alone on stage and that's not something you had done in awhile. What was that experience like?

ETHERIDGE: The whole experience of the last year for me É was a very singular experience. I recorded the album by myself with my producer and engineer and it was a very solo experience. When it came time to tour, I felt that that would be the right time to bring my songs, bring myself back together to this solo alone place that I had been when I was signed. I didn't know what it would be like, I didn't know how the audience would react, but what I learned in that tour was so much more about me. It forced me to be interactive with the audience and intimate. I love what I've gotten back in touch with by touring solo.

CNN: The album cover and some of the album art inside has tattoo-related things. Was that your first tattoo that you got?

ETHERIDGE: Yes. I decided, I was turning 40, I had been through this incredible life change. I was a rock and roll artist and darn it, I didn't have a tattoo.

And I got this tattoo. It was the whole thing about the album being called "Skin" and it being about skin and getting back in touch with the skin and peeling off the layers and so I thought, I'll get "Skin" put on my skin. And I'll get it done in white because that's different and I'm white and white fades and basically now I have a stretch mark on the back of my neck. (laugh) So I think I'm gonna get a real tattoo soon.